Previews

E3 2010: Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Hands-on

Welcome to the Interrogation Room, GameSpy's signature pre-release game coverage format. Here, a GameSpy editor (typically one who's relatively in-the-dark about the game in question) grills his peers for information on a hotly anticipated game -- hopefully with more entertaining results than the typical boilerplate preview would provide.

Ryan Scott, Executive Editor: I sure kicked your ass with my dorky Ryu tactics in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. What'd you think? Are you much of an MvC fan?

Eric Neigher, Contributing Editor: Yes, and screw you very much, you fireball-spammer. If I would've known how to make Iron Man shoot his repulsor beams, it would've been an entirely different match. My general impressions are that the game feels exactly like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but with much better graphics. Since we had such a limited number of characters to choose from, I have to believe we didn't see the game in its full range of options (which I'd bet will be insane), but the gameplay emphasizes just what the series always has: extreme speed, bread-and-butter combos, over-the-top Japanese style, and fanboy-approved callbacks to the various comic book and videogame properties involved. Should be a fun enough romp for the people who love MvC2.

Ryan Scott: The fighting game scene has no shortage of them, either -- MvC2 is still a staple at each year's Evo Championship Series tournament in Las Vegas. Anyway, it's really hard to form an opinion about this game based on, what, the two or three matches we played? I concur with you, though; it definitely feels like MvC2, which is very different from, say, Street Fighter or Guilty Gear. I've never really been able to wrap my head around the MvC games, to be honest. But I digress. Do you have any favorite MvC2 characters that you're hoping to see in this game?

Eric Neigher: I hope Pikachu is in it. Pika! Actually, the series is known for having tons and tons of characters, only a few of which are actually serviceable at all. I suspect that everybody I usually play is in for sure already: Spider-Man, Juggernaut, Ken, etc., although I was a little disturbed to see Marvel suddenly pushing characters that nobody cared about a year ago (ahem, Deadpool) -- which makes me wonder if these games aren't more valuable for their marketing pushes than for their actual revenues. Still, I think most folks who like this series are gonna know what they're getting -- and I guess half the fun is discerning which characters will be useful and which are just marketing filler.

Ryan Scott: That's an interesting point of view. Heck, on that note, I suppose it wouldn't be much of a stretch to expect Thor, Hawkeye, War Machine, Black Widow, and Nick Fury. Now I'm curious how that will play out. Anyway, did you play any characters that you liked at all? You know, in the brief windows you had to figure them out between ass-kickings.

Eric Neigher: Funny. More like ass-cheesing, Mister Fireball-man. I played Iron Man, Morrigan, and Hulk, all of whom played essentially identical to how they felt in MvC2. This game features updated graphics and will likely have more characters and some small gameplay tweaks, but as far as characters are concerned, it seems pretty much like MvC2 HD. How about you? Anyone besides Ryu-fireball-cheese that you liked?

Ryan Scott: It's harder for me to really pinpoint characters in this game, because everything plays so differently than what I'm used to in the typical Street Fighter game. Ryu seemed like Ryu; I would've given Morrigan a try, if you'd managed to defeat a single one of my characters (AKA "Ryu") at any given point. I'm really partial to dudes like Blanka and Guile on the Capcom side, but neither of them was present in what we played. Otherwise you'd be whining about Blanka-ball cheese right now. You got any final thoughts about this one? Any hopes and dreams for the final game?

Eric Neigher: Yeah, MvC doesn't typically have charge characters like Blanka or, my fave, M. Bison -- because they aren't conducive to the combo-intensive play style. That just is what it is, I suppose. I guess my only final thought would be that I shall wreak vengeance upon you for your horrible Ryu fireball spam one day, or my name ain't Eric "Bison Head Stomp" McGee.